In the diagnosis and treatment of the interiors of organisms, an endoscope is an effective and commonly used tool. An endoscope is traditionally equipped with a camera lens at the front end of its fiber-optic catheter. The camera lens and the fiber-optic catheter are inserted into the organism through a patient's mouth or anus, and images of the internal of the organism are captured by the camera lens and are sent back through the fiber-optic catheter to an external machine.
However, since the digestive system of the human body is quite long and has many bent segments, the photographic results of the camera are thus affected. Therefore, sending the fiber-optic catheter into the digestive system of the human body by swallowing is not a very comfortable experience.
In recent years, capsule endoscopy has been developed in the field of medical equipment. Due to its small size, the capsule endoscope can be swallowed more easily by the patient, and, without the fiber-optic catheter, the length of the digestive system is not a concern. Moreover, the movement of the capsule endoscope inside the digestive system relies on the contractions of the digestive tract, so it has a better photographic result compared to the traditional intubational endoscope.
However, since the capsule endoscope is to be swallowed into the digestive system, its size cannot be too large, but a small capsule endoscopy tend to welter in the organs such as the stomach or the large intestine, so images of the digestive system cannot be effectively obtained. Furthermore, since the existing capsule endoscope is solely moved through the digestive system by the contractions of the digestive tract, thus the direction and location of the capsule endoscope cannot be controlled from outside the organism.
Recently, instrument such as a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instrument has been employed to guide, move or rotate the shooting angle of the capsule endoscope inside the organism by producing a huge magnetic field outside the organism, thereby obtaining a better photographic result. However, such external instrument cannot be easily acquired, and the cost of acquisition is high. Moreover, the handling of it is not simple and intuitive for the operators.
Therefore, there is a need to overcome the abovementioned shortcomings of the prior art.